Tom Meade, who has died aged 86, pioneered the field of cardiovascular epidemiology. His research, spanning five decades, gave medical science a vastly improved understanding of the biology of blood and the circulatory system, opening the door for targeted new heart disease treatments.
By the early 1960s, heart disease was the leading cause of death in many countries, with the culprit widely believed to be atheroma (fatty deposits inside the arteries), brought on by high cholesterol and a fatty diet. But in 1965, Meade, a researcher at the Medical Research Council (MRC), read something he described as “a real eye-opener”. His boss, the pre-eminent epidemiologist Jerry Morris, wrote that while the numbers of men dying aged 50-69 had surged since 1908, analysis of autopsy reports showed that the numbers dying with coronary atheroma had decreased. Meade wondered if other factors were in play, and what role blood might have in heart disease. He wanted to investigate.
